1977 Montreal Expos

After managing the cellar dweller 1976 Montreal Expos I get the perk of watching those young stallions run wild and improve in 1977.  This team lost 107 games in '76 and finally said goodbye to the outdated Parc Jary.  Moving into the spacious Stadie Olimpique' the Expos had some young players waiting to step into stardom.  Future HOF'er Andre Dawson would be one of those stars on the rise.  In the 1977 Topps Set, Dawson's rookie card was a panel shot with other NL rookie OF'ers.  In the updated set I decided to use the same picture from the panel card, even though it was a bit grainy, but I was able to "blow it up" to regular size.  All in total 18 new Expos cards had to be created to fill out the team.

From Dawson's 1977 rookie panel card taken @Shea.  The "hawk" would go on to win the 1977 NL Rookie of the year and signal the rise of the Expos into contention over the next 5 or 6 seasons.  Dawson was always one of my favorite players.  Unfortunately for him his knees were wrecked even before he subjected them to the crappy carpet at Olympic Stadium.  Still he put together a HOF career that landed him in Cooperstown.  I met him this father's day at the HOF game in Cooperstown and I have to say he's one heck of a nice guy.  I actually busted his chops for wearing a Marlins jersey.  I said, "Why not your Expo jersey, Hawk?"  His reply, "Doesn't fit anymore !"

Taken from his 78 Topps Card.  Clearly taken @ Shea.

From a 8x10 glossy taken in Dodger Stadium

Notice just how much he choked up on the bat ?  Even the lightest hitters playing today refuse to choke up, especially when they have 2 strikes.  Is it any wonder why strikeouts are up ?

From his 1977 rookie panel card.  He would go on to have a find career as a "swingman" for both the Expos and Tigers.

Custom airbrush.  Pasted head shot from his '77 Orioles card onto a 1982 Fleer photo of Scott Sanderson

Airbrushed cap and jacket from his '78 Minor league card.

From a small glossy shot

From a small glossy shot

From his panel rookie card

From a small glossy photo

From his '78 Topps card.  Bahnsen had some good years in the AL with the Yankees and the Chisox.  He came to Montreal and had 4 or 5 solid years in the bullpen as a setup man and middle reliever.

From a small glossy photo

Stadium Game Program Cover

From his 1974 Topps Card taken @ Shea

8x10 glossy.  The "Crow" never seemed to smile in any photos that he took.  For the longest time he was the only lefty bat in a predominantly right handed lineup.  He split time between 1st and right field and had a gun for an arm.  He would have spent more time in right if Ellis Valentine was ahead of him with a canon for an arm.

8x10 glossy shot taken in Wrigley.  By the time McEnaney arrived in Montreal his arm was abused from years in Cincy where he was a top guy in Dr. Hook's relief staff.

From his '78 Topps card

8x10 glossy

Creating Templates for 1977 cards

The 1977 Topps Baseball Card set featured a pretty easy to work with template.  The player photo is in a box and there are no overlays.  All I needed to do was create a separate template for each color scheme surrounding the player position flag.  I also needed to create a transparency over the player photo box in order to add the new photos.  The final step is to manually type in the player name using the Franklin Gothic Heavy font style.  Here are some step by steps on how that was done.

The checkerbox area in the middle is whee the photo will go.  I copy / paste in the position of the player.  The team name is copied and pasted.  5 teams used this exact color scheme for the 1977 set.  There are 6 color schemes in all.

This is a card for Fred Holdsworth who pitched 42 innings for Montreal in 1977.  His '77 card (see below) shows him on Baltimore.  To create a card for him on Montreal I had to do a lot of airbrushing and cut/paste.  I turned his Oriole cap into an Expo cap, which wasn't hard since both have multicolored panels and a white base.  I copied the Expo logo and pasted it on to the cap.  Then I copied just his head shot and pasted it on the body of Scott Sanderson's 1982 Fleer card.

The original 1977 Fred Holdsworth card taken while he was on the Orioles in 1976.  Fred was dealt to the Expos on July 14, 1977 from Baltimore for a player to be named later.  He will have two cards in the set.  The original will be named Fred_Holdsworth.jpg and the update will be Fred_Holdsworth_MON.jpg.  When we use 2 cards for a player who was traded and played for 2 or more teams the updates with always have the new team's name (ie.._MON) used as a differentiator.

Here is Scott Sanderson's Fleer Card from 1982 that I decapitated him from and added Freddy's head shot.  Make note that no present or former MLB player was hurt or scared due to this process and since no profit was made I'm pretty sure that no copy-write infringement occurred either (fingers crossed, LOL !)

About this card update project...

Most folks reading this are managers in Chad W's fantastic h2h season replay league called ARAIG (As Real As It Gets).  Last season we replayed the 1976 season.  Following the laws of math and sequences we are now moving on to 1977.  Last season while playing games we used standard 90x135 player head shots.  This season I volunteered to put together the 1977 Topps Baseball set as our photo standard.  After going through the set I noticed a number of things:

1. At least 1/3 of the players in MLB during the 1977 season never had a Topps card.  We will call those fellow "MIA"
2. About 10% were pictured on the team they played for the previous season or split time between multiple teams, so they would need to be represented on a card for each of them.
3. Topps basically took artistic liberty to "airbrush" new caps and uni's on traded players as well as players on the two expansion teams (Toronto and Seattle).  As a secondary phase for this project I will attempt to replace the worst airbrush photos with a real life photo and an updated card.  Basically Topps had a monopoly on making baseball cards from the mid 60's through the early 80's.  This led them to be lazy in their card creation.  Most photos were taken @ Shea or Yankee Stadiums respectively or during spring training.  Topps was also known to recycle older photos over and over again by zooming in and out.
4. Topps used another old time trick for guys who they expected to be traded or for teams changing their logos.  We call this "trick" the BHNH (Big Head No Hat) Card.  Typically 10% of each Topps card during this era had the BHNH format.  After tackling the "Airbrush" issue I will attempt to cover up those bad 70's "doos" with an appropriate cap photo.
5. Finally, I will attempt to track down as many action shots as I can to replace the Airbrush and BHNH shots to add some realism, especially if I find a superstar with a terrible look.

Below are some samples of standard Topps shots for 1977 that I will attempt to work on during this project:

By 1977 Reggie Jackson was the biggest superstar on the baseball horizon.  In 1976 he found himself playing in Baltimore, because Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley was in the process of dismantling his dynasty and shipping his perspective free agents out of town in hopes of getting some value for them.  Topps took this shot sometime prior to 1976 and airbrushed in a Yankee batting helmet and pinstripes for Reggie.  I deduced this based on the fact that I can see an Oakland A's jersey sleeve in the background just over Reggie's shoulder.  Thankfully I won't have to redo this one, because in the NY area Burger King issued a mid-season set with a real shot of Mr. October.  This is an anomaly, but we'll take it for sure.  IMO, this card was one of the worst ever, because the airbrushing looks like some kid used a marker during arts and crafts.  It is definitely not fitting the "straw that stirs the drink"

This is a great example of the BHNH (Big Head No Hat) card.  Topps would take multiple shots for each player during the season.  This was done with more frequency in 1976 due to impending expansion (2 new AL teams).  Topps eventually got even lazier and used these types of shots for star player rather than go and get a better shot.  If a team was in the process of changing logos and uni's this shot would be used as well.  The only way you can really tell what team the guy played on at the time of the photo is by looking at the jersey collar and piping.  If you have a cool 'fro like Grant Jackson you might not mind this shot, but if you were folically challenged like Mitch Williams, you might not be too happy.

Here's a classic "look up to the heavens" head shot employed by Topps during their monopolistic run.  The photographer would shoot the photo from the ground up with the player gazing unto the heavens.  It was very easy to airbrush these since only a bit of the cap and no log would show.  Sometimes they would shoot it straight on with only the underside of the cap showing.  Topps shot the whole Texas Rangers team like this in 1972, because the previous year they were the "lame duck" Senators.  Everyone knew they were moving from Washington to Texas and Topps wasn't taking any chances that they would also be changing their cap color or uniform style.

Mickey Lolich never ever threw a pitch in anger in a Mets uniform during the 1977 season.  In fact he didn't pitch for anyone.  Still Topps issued this card for him in 1977 in a Met uni since he played for them in '76.  This is a classic Spring training shot that Topps overused to most of our chagrin.  Lolich returned to baseball in '78 for an abbreviated stint in San Diego.  On a side note, every time I see this card I think of the man that the Mets traded away, Rusty Staub, who went on to have 4 All-Star seasons with the Tigers, while Mickey basically ate his way out of baseball.